Congratulations to Amit Kumar on Successfully Defending His Ph.D. Dissertation!

The Zhao Nano Lab is delighted to announce that Amit Kumar successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on October 27, 2026, in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Georgia.

His dissertation, entitled “From SERS Spectral Variability to Reliable Biosensing: Plasmonic Substrate Physics, Time-Resolved Spectral Dynamics, and Machine Learning,” was completed under the supervision of Prof. Yiping Zhao.

Amit's doctoral research focused on understanding the physical origins of spectral variability in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and developing reliable, AI-assisted approaches for chemical and biological sensing. His work integrated plasmonic silver nanorod substrates, molecular–surface interactions, time-resolved spectral analysis, and machine learning to improve the reproducibility, classification, and quantitative interpretation of SERS measurements.

His research demonstrated applications in bacterial biomarker identification, bacterial culture-supernatant analysis, and the detection and quantification of viruses associated with bovine respiratory disease complex. These contributions advance the development of rapid, label-free spectroscopic technologies for biosensing and disease diagnostics.

During his Ph.D. studies, Amit established a strong publication record and received several recognitions, including the 2026 American Vacuum Society (AVS) National Graduate Research Award and the 2025 Sean M. Kirkpatrick Award for Outstanding Graduate Research at UGA.

We sincerely congratulate Amit on this important academic milestone and recognize his dedication, perseverance, and valuable contributions to the Zhao Nano Lab. We wish him continued success in his future scientific and professional endeavors!

Congratulations, Amit!